This is an undated handout photo issued by Sunshine Press made available Tuesday May 10, 2016, of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with a kitten in Ecuador’s embassy in London. (Sunshine Press/Wikileaks via AP)
Originally appeared at Zerohedge
In a stunning new report, CNN has just revealed, according to anonymous sources at least, that US authorities have prepared charges and will seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for intelligence leaks dating all the way back to 2010.
US authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, US officials familiar with the matter tell CNN.The Justice Department investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks dates to at least 2010, when the site first gained wide attention for posting thousands of files stolen by the former US Army intelligence analyst now known as Chelsea Manning.
US prepares charges to seek arrest of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, sources say https://t.co/U06aLxlQ4Q https://t.co/NBl2Hn1nBD
— CNN (@CNN) April 20, 2017
This latest revelation comes after CIA Director Mike Pompeo ramped up the Trump administration’s rhetoric against WikiLeaks describing it as a “non-state hostile intelligence service” earlier this week. Ironically, as we noted this morning, Pompeo’s comments can just days before the FBI and CIA admitted that they are searching for an “insider” at the CIA (not a Russian) who exposed thousands of top-secret documents that described CIA tools used to penetrate smartphones, smart televisions and computer systems.
Last week in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, CIA Director Mike Pompeo went further than any US government official in describing a role by WikiLeaks that went beyond First Amendment activity.
He said WikiLeaks “directed Chelsea Manning to intercept specific secret information, and it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States.”
“It’s time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: A non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo’s comments were, of course, met with an immediate snarky reply from Assange over twitter.
Called a “non-state intelligence service” today by the “state non-intelligence agency” which produced al-Qaeda, ISIS, Iraq, Iran & Pinochet.
— Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) April 14, 2017
For the past several years, U.S. prosecutors have struggled with whether the First Amendment precluded the prosecution of Assange. In fact, in what now appears to be a very prescient opinion piece, Julian Assange recently penned an article in the Washington Post defending his publications by saying that his motives are “identical to those claimed by the New York Times and The Post.”
Quite simply, our motive is identical to that claimed by the New York Times and The Post — to publish newsworthy content. Consistent with the U.S. Constitution, we publish material that we can confirm to be true irrespective of whether sources came by that truth legally or have the right to release it to the media. And we strive to mitigate legitimate concerns, for example by using redaction to protect the identities of at-risk intelligence agents.
During President Barack Obama’s administration, Attorney General Eric Holder and officials at the Justice Department determined it would be difficult to bring charges against Assange because WikiLeaks wasn’t alone in publishing documents stolen by Manning. Several newspapers, including The New York Times, did as well. The investigation continued, but any possible charges were put on hold, according to US officials involved in the process then.
All that said, CNN’s sources seem to believe those same prosecutors have now found a way to move forward…though we’re sure the New York Times won’t receive similar arrest warrants.
Of course, it’s unclear what immediate purpose the charges will serve given that Assange is holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for the sole purpose of avoiding political persecution. That said, somehow we suspect that some form of ‘leverage’ is about to be applied against Ecuador to help them ‘remember’ that they have other immediate and critically important uses for Assange’s London bedroom.
And this pretty much sums it up:
Wednesday “WikiLeaks will show illegal actions by the CIA”
Friday “US prepares charges to arrest Assange”https://t.co/7zRy5A2ZAH— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 21, 2017
There seems to be a pattern here. When Donald Trump was elected there were tons of allegations that Russian hackers and Wikileaks revelations helped him win. He then ramped up the tensions with Russia via Tomahawk diplomacy and everything looked presidential again in that area. And now the screws get turned up against Wikileaks…… Hmmm.
WHat you expected. Part of American cultures is backstabbing. Not the first time and not the least time
this is what will you get if you are telling the truth, no wonder why western msm tell lies, they might be closed down or jailed
That how you get thank you from americans for helping. Wikileaks actually help Trump win the election. Now Wikileaks will be criminally charge. I always say never trust americans
Wikileaks didn’t help anyone, Hillary did it by being such a hideous nazi bastard.
Trump himself stated that it was Wikileaks that was the true opposition, to the Democrat’s and MSM’s presumption of a straight transference of executive power from Obama to Clinton in the last US election, not the Republican party establishment. Now of course is new narrative as Trump is drowning in resurgent Neo-Con DC.
Hillary is like 95% Zionist while Trump is like 75% Zionist. You will still get plenty of Zionist policies from a Zionist-Trump. The Bible clearly says that their will be a one world government that imposes a mark of the beast and the faults Christ will be Jewish and he will rule the world. At first he will seem good and perform miracles and end world hunger. Then he will show his true nature and will wipe out 1/3rd of the earths population and will torture people. The UK-UN-US-USSR-AU-EU-China were all in bed to accomplish this together, though their worthless subjects often did not know this… Since then the USSR has reversed heading, and now is Nationalist. This makes Russia now a good guy on the side of God. However, as you can see, the rest still as they are globalist institutions, still stand. Iran and best-Korea and Lebanon and Yemen and Ireland and Russia and Afghanistan and some population groups within the US are the last holdouts against the coming anti-Christ. http://realzionistnews.com/
Hillary is 100% Zionist while Trump is 100% Zionist….
Assange is an Australian citizen – but Australia is completely dominated in bilateral relations with the US – so don’t expect any protests from the Australian government about the US targeting an Australian citizen with legally dubious charges.